To the Digital World
by Maelstrome
Summary: To the Digital World takes place well after the events of Digimon World DS and quite a bit before the events of Digimon World Dusk and Dawn. It stars a young girl named Lorylie who get's sucked into the world of monsters that many found fun and exciting. However, she is not greeted with welcoming arms, but one of the worst experiences of her life. Updates on Tuesdays.
1. A Simple Autumn Day

It was a cool morning towards the middle of September, the sun, though shining was barely gracing the earths surface with its rays, leaving it a lower temperature. A chilling wind began to blow, stirring up the few leaves that had already fallen to the ground and a girl on her way to school hugged her books to her chest from the sudden breeze. She was wearing a black sweater, but even still the wind cut through it. The tan wind breaker that was tied around her waist fell past her beige shorts to her black leggings. She anticipated it being a bit cold but not the cutting wind. She would have put it on while walking but her hands were already full. Even though she had a tan messenger bag strapped to her shoulder, the new term had demanded many more books than it could hold.

She shivered as another gust flew down the street ruffling up her long red hair and messing it up. This was why she always had to wear it in a pony tail, though it often ended up falling over one of her shoulders. Finally, after another couple minutes of walking, the tall white building came into sight and she sighed thankfully until faint gossip from a small group next to her caught her attention.

"So are we going to go again today?" Said a scrawny boy with short black hair towards his other friends. The other two boys smiled and nodded, they seemed really excited. Curious, the girl slowed down, she had grown used eaves dropping on other peoples conversations throughout school. Not for malicious purposes but because it was something interesting. Though they all lived in a city, it was awfully boring. Few events came and the most adults ever clamored about was a business meeting. So such a thing as a place of excitement was definitely on the list of things to check out.

"Of course we're going, I have to check on all my digimon!" Said a taller blonde boy. The girls' brow knitted together. There it was again, digimon. There had been a rumor spreading through the school about digital monsters appearing on the computers. Of course she had taken note of it and assumed it was some sort of online game but she wasn't one to really take interest in video games so she let it go. Were these kids planning on meeting up to play together? Perhaps she should give it a shot, if everyone was talking about it, then it must be good right? At the very least it would be a good distraction for a while.

The red haired girl continued to puzzle out her thoughts all the way into school. As she got to her desk she was finally greeted by an exuberant. "Hey Lorylie!"

The red haired girl known as Lorylie set her books down and turned to see her friend bounding towards her. The girls bright blonde hair hung freely around her and swayed about almost as if it had a mind of its own. She had large piercing turquoise eyes that could see through any charade.

"Eve," Lorylie greeted her joyful friend. She honestly wondered what always made her so happy. They had only been friends for a year or so but Evelynia, or Eve as she desired most people to call her, had clung to the red head like glue. "I didn't see you on the walk to school." With this small comment she knew that it would set her friend off till the bell and she would be able to get lost in her own thoughts.

"Oh yeah, I had my dad drop me off! You know how it goes, I was late trying to finish up some homework. I don't know how you manage to do it all, I swear they are giving us way too much. But that is just something about you that I love, are always so dedicated! I know what you're going to say, 'that you can ask me for help any time,' but I swear its not that it's hard work its just so much! I don't get any time to socialize if I do all of it after school and I mean-" And Eve continued to talk, her words mushing together into a haze while Lorylie's eyes slowly drifted off in another direction. It wasn't that Lorylie disliked her friend, its just that no one could keep up with Eve when she got talking. More than anything it was a way to distract others and keep the attention off Lorylie while she stewed in her mind. Of course the first thing her mind went back to was the topic she had over heard.

She didn't have a computer at home that she could play on, if she ever needed something for an assignment she would borrow her mom's, or go to the library. That just left the school computers, of course never playing an online game before she was hesitant. Most games she had tried were only a free trial and required paying money to continue or very monotonous. Maybe she would just look it up first to see if it was worth it. There was one computer lab that was always empty after school, perhaps she would try there. The bell suddenly rang to signal the start of class and she put aside those thoughts for later.


	2. Computer Trouble

The final bell rang and all the students went rushing out of the door in a massive burst, on their way home or to hang out with friends. Lorylie didn't even bother getting up from her desk, the homework she was working on was nearly finished and she didn't feel like getting crushed in the hallways full of students.

Once everything seemed to quiet down she finally packed up her stuff and stole out into the hallway. Her destination clear in her mind as she made her way down to the first floor. On the way she past several students talking about various subjects such as sports but she blew past them until she reached the door she was looking for. There were few people around as she opened the door into the computer room that was devoid of life. With relief she moved towards one of the computers, wriggling the mouse a bit to awaken it from its slumber. She was thankful the room was empty because she would hate to explain to a teacher that she was going to do some research on a video game. That would probably get her kicked out of the room faster than she could blink.

The computer finally groaned as it turned on, the older screen slowly coming into focus. Already on it was a search bar for the internet and Lorylie sat down at the station and paused, tapping her fingers gently on the keys without actually pressing them.

What was she going to search? It wasn't like she knew the name of the game, just something about digimon. With a skeptic look, she typed in 'digimon' into the search bar and hit enter, waiting for something to pop up. Multiple listings greeted her eyes but nothing about a game. Returning to the search bar she tried a couple of different searches like 'Monster game', 'MMO's', and even 'Digimon Game', yet still nothing showed up.

Lorylie huffed as she leaned back in her chair, arms folding across her chest. After thinking about it for a while longer she rolled up her sweater sleeves, and tried a couple more times until she typed in the words 'digital monsters'. Suddenly the screen flashed and a window popped up showing a fuzzy image of what looked like a little island. In it strange creatures seemed to roam around, they were rough housing with one another, what looked like training with equipment and even just chatting.

The red head was both stunned and fascinated, but before she could delve any further, the image vanished, the window closing itself.

"Wait, come back!" She found herself calling as she did a quick command to re-open the last closed tab. However she was only greeted with an error noise that left her confused. What was that? Was that the game? Just as she was about to search for it again a letter popped up on screen. Hesitantly Loryie glanced around the room, she didn't have her e-mail open on this computer... As she wondered weather to open it or not she found the mouse moving towards it.

Finally she gave in and clicked it, the letter opening with a flourish to reveal a note, "Greetings potential tamer, you have seen your first glimpse of the digital world!"

Potential tamer? Digital world? Has she accidentally activated the game already? As she wondered about it, she lifted her hand and touched the screen. She wasn't entirely sure why but she felt a strong curious desire to do so. The instant she did the lights in the room went out. Her neck snapped up towards the ceiling but her eyes immediately moved back towards the computer as a bright blue light was shining at her so bright that she had to cover her eyes.

It almost felt as if the light was going to engulf her and she started to feel a tug as she was pulled in. What the hell was happening? She jumped up from her chair and tried to take a couple of steps back but the pull was too strong and in and instant she was swept off her feet and pulled into the computer screen.


	3. The Midnight Forest

"Ugh," Lorylie moaned as she slowly came to. Her hands moved to her throbbing head as she tried to remember what just happened. As the fuzziness of her mind started to dissipate she realized that she was flat on her back. She sighed, the light must have been so bright that she had fainted, it was probably a lucky break that she didn't get a seizure form it. Slowly she got up into a sitting position before opening her eyes but the sight she was greeted to was beyond anything she could have imagined.

She was sitting in a small clearing surrounded by thorny, spiky bushes and trees. Dead leaves scattered the ground along with patches of dead grass. Dark grey clouds gathered up above in the sky that held a blue-ish purple hue while the horizon held a faint strip of crimson. High above, past the clouds hung a massive moon. Only a sliver was currently visible but she could tell that it was huge.

'Where on earth was she?' Loreylie questioned as she looked around. Unintentionally her hand moved to her chest only for her to feel something that tugged at her neck. Quickly she looked down to see an orange and black device swinging from a long cord on her neck. The strange little box looked kind of like a remote but with precious few buttons on it.

Was this some sort of dream? Unsteadily she got up from the ground only to feel light headed and it caused her to sit back down. Was it possible to get dizzy in a dream? Lorylie wasn't completely sure, she hadn't had a dream in years. The last thing she could think of was that whole fiasco with the computer, so maybe she was unconscious after all.

Upon standing again she looked about to see her bag a couple feet from her looking uncharacteristically empty. She picked it up and shook it to find that there wasn't anything in it at all. No textbooks, no pencils, not even her wallet or cell phone. Contrary to this information she actually let out a small smile. Well that nearly clinched that this wasn't real, and because of this she was more comfortable to go along with this weird world. Perhaps this would be fun, even if it was all in her head. Yeah, she could go on an adventure and then awaken when a teacher found her. With a nod of satisfaction she looked around noticing only one thing, what seemed to be a pathway leading towards a rather large silhouette in the distance. With little options open to her she started on the pathway towards her future.

The dirt path was hard, almost as if it had the very life sucked out of it. Small pebbles and dead leaves scattered around it making it rather hard to traverse in sandals. The wind that gusted every now and then held a penetrating chill that had force Lorylie to adorn the jacket she had tied around her waist and yet it didn't seem to keep the cold away.

She had been walking for quiet some time when she finally heard a noise. It was small, that of a twig snapping but she quickly looked in its direction. The shadows made it hard to make out anything within the dense dead forest on either side of her and she felt the hair on the back of her neck start to rise. Slowly she took another step when she heard a rushing sound to her left. She stopped again, there was definitely something there and her eyes scanned the forest for the slightest hint of movement but dread started to blossom inside her when she heard a low growl.

She took in a sharp breath as her eyes finally landed on a small pair of glowing eyes through the tree's. It seemed like it could be big enough to be a wolf, and sounded like one too but if it was only one maybe she could fend it off. Cautiously she glimpsed around the area but couldn't find anything, no stick sharp enough, no branch thick enough to use as a decent weapon.

Lorylie gave a concerned grunt as her gaze turned back towards to beast but she immediately froze, there were now 7 pairs of eyes look at her with hunger. Slowly they stalked forward, and she gulped. She didn't want to make any sudden movements lest they spring at her but she needed to run, find a tree or something to get into where they couldn't follow, but then a thought occurred to her.

This was a dream, all she had to do was calm down and think hard. She would be able to out run them no problem. This thought calmed her down and helped her loosen her tense muscles while the glowing eyes moved closer. Without looking away from the pack she glanced at the path in front of her, chances were that was her best bet without getting lost and it seemed to get narrow up ahead, perhaps she could actually use that to her advantage.

With a smile she visibly tensed up, the eyes halting for the briefest of moments that allowed her to start her mad dash through the forest.

Everything around her started to fly past and she was never more thankful to have taken track before but the thought didn't last long as ghoulish howls arose behind her along with a thundering of paws on the hard ground. She didn't want to look back because it would slow her down and cause her to loose focus but this was a dream, were those really just wolves behind her? Giving into curiosity she glanced and almost tripped over a small root that was in her way from surprise. Behind her were no ordinary wolves. These beasts had purple fur that held blood red markings. Large blades adorned their front paws and bat like wings sprouted from the back of their heads. They looked like hounds from hell!

Suddenly she turned back and started running faster, even if this was a dream she didn't want those beasts getting hold of her. They looked strait out of a horror story! How could her mind think of such evil creatures? These thoughts flooded her mind but they were distracting, so she forced them down. Dwelling on them now would only lead to her assured demise.

As she worked to keep a good pace she glanced ahead to see a fork in the road, suddenly she let out a cry or surprise as a massive devil hound jumped out in front of her. She tried to stop her momentum and she ended up sliding through the dirt, her sandals catching on the rocks and getting ripped to shreds. She didn't have time to concern herself with it however as she had to change directions to avoid the massive jaws of the demon beast.

She was now sprinting through the forest, a massive clan of beasts on her tail. The hard ground started to make her now bare feet ache but she had to press on. She knew this couldn't be real but if she thought that it was, the fear and weight of situation would slow her down and with the pack so close she couldn't afford that.

Another fork came into view up ahead but just like at the last one, another wolf ambushed here there, blocking her aimed path and forcing her to change directions, however she was more wary this time and managed not to skid her now dirty and bruised feet along the rough terrain.

As the chase continued she felt her breathing starting to become labored, she couldn't keep it even anymore. Her throat was parched and her tongue dry as a bone. She needed a place to stop, some sort of shelter, anything because she couldn't keep this up much longer.

Then almost as if answering her thoughts she looked up ahead to see the massive shadow that seemed so far away before coming closer and closer with each passing second. As she drew near she was finally able to make out that it was some sort of castle. It looked ominous and sent chills down her spine but she would have to deal with that later because she was already slowing down. She could almost feel the hot breath of the beasts on her neck which caused her adrenaline to kick in and she sped forward.

She didn't have much longer to go, she could see a gate up ahead but she felt her heart sink into her chest when she saw it was closed. The breif thought caused her to slow, the feeling of losing setting in, but she had to shake it off, there had to be something... perhaps a way over it? As it came closer she squinted to see that yes it was quite possible to climb as it had small rungs along the gate.

With a few deep breaths she jumped forward as the thunderous howls rung out behind her and she latched onto the dark gate. Quickly she climbed as she felt fur and fangs brushing against her heels. Desperately she climbed till she got to the spiky top and she dropped over the edge, landing with a hard thump on the stone path below.

Instantly she crawled away on to a dried grass on the side of the stone walkway before finally looking back. The massive wolves howled and growled, nipping at the gate, trying to climb over and get through. Soon they realized the futility of their struggle and slowly started to pad away, some glaring at their escaped meal, others giving a vicious snarl.

Lorylie on the other hand sat there on the ground, holding her stomach as she tried to slow her breathing but as the hounds left, a sense of relief flooded her and she began to laugh hysterically. The laughter didn't last long however as her abdomen cried out in pain and she winced. Her feet throbbed and bled from the scrapes around them. The lower part of her leggings were torn up and cuts and bruises were abundant around her ankles.

Though she smiled while on the ground it was not one of joy or relief, it was one of pain. An automatic response that curled her lips back. Finally she layed back trying to gather her thoughts and her stamina. She really needed to get up, it wasn't good to just stop running or the blood would pool in her body. Gingerly she got up, her feet screaming at her not to, thankfully the grass, though dry, was softer and soothed the ache.

Finally she was able to glance up at the castle and really take it in. The massive structure sprawled high into the heavens rather than wide on the ground. Aside from the gate, massive stone walls outlined the whole grounds of the castle, various forms of shrubbery and walls splitting everything into sections. The castle itself was dark and indeed felt ominous but now that she was closer it also felt cold. The chill that blew through the grounds was akin to the wind from before but this time it seemed to pierce her jacket and chill her to the bone.

Even though her skin felt like it was on fire and her blood rushed inside her, she could still feel the icy chill. Inadvertently she shuddered and took a step back. With the wolves gone perhaps she could venture out again. Surely if there was a castle then there was a town nearby as well. Slowly Lorylie wandered up to the gate. All the energy from before was pretty much sapped out of her but she refused to stay on those grounds. Something about them felt horribly wrong. As she took a breath the red head reached out to the gate but when she gripped it, a painful shock zapped her hands and she let out a cry of surprise and pain. She pulled her hands back to see scorch markers on them. That was strange, it wasn't like that when she climbed over...

Then another thought hit her. Why did that hurt? She tried to move her hands but they stung as she balled them into fists. She could actually feel that. Then again she could feel the pain in her feet too. The pain of exhaustion, the cramp in her side. She had been feeling a lot of pain and had been suppressing it. She felt a wave of panic course through her like another jolt of electricity. Her breathing, still heavy began to quicken its pace. Desperately she looked for a reason, any reason that wasn't the explanation she was rejecting so vehemently. Was this dream just super realistic? She had heard a couple of people talking about dreams like that before but had never experienced it herself. Many questions started floating about her mind, those of her world, her last moments before the computer, this strange new land. Each new thought felt like a weight falling strait onto her shoulders.

Somewhere in her mind, Lorylie realized that if she persisted in these thoughts she was going to loose it. Swallowing hard she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She mentally reaffirmed to herself that this was, indeed, a dream. Not because of reason or logic dictating so, but simply because if she didn't she was going break. With another deep breath she opened her eyes to look once more at the strange world that now surrounded her.

Glancing back at the gate, she decided that was going to try again but as her hands drew closer she could feel the energy flowing through the bars of the gate and it caused her fingers to twitch. There was no way she was climbing back over. As she glanced up she realized that the large stone walls around the castle were impassable as well. That just left a few options, either go into the castle, or stay on the grounds.

For Lorylie it was a clear choice, stay on the grounds and look for another way out. There was no way she was going into that castle. Just looking at it filled her with a sense of dread and gave her goosebumps.

With a deep breath she took off to the right of the castle entrance and cut through the grassy yard, hoping to give her feet some relief while she walked off her insane chase from before.


	4. Castle Grounds

The grounds didn't seem as daunting when Lorylie had started but as she began to traverse them she realized the truth. The castle grounds were massive. It had been 15 minutes already and she felt like she hadn't gotten anywhere. The walls that sectioned off certain places on the ground didn't help either, making the whole place more akin to a labyrinth.

As she wandered, she found herself glancing up at the sky periodically and feeling like something was amiss. It wasn't until she had to sit and take a break did it dawn on her that the sky should have changed by now. Whether it was sunset or sunrise, based on the crimson glow she had seen before it should have either gotten darker or lighter by now, yet it was the same. The only thing that did seem to change was that the moon appeared to be shrinking. True enough, it was but a sliver before and now there was even less.

As she contemplated, she had to remind herself that this wasn't real so of course such a thing could happen. Yet even as she reasoned with herself, the doubt she had been stiffing for her own sanity's sake was starting to take over more and more. Each passing moment, every beat of her heart only served to increase the suspicion of this world's actual nature.

Before she could go farther, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of voices. She couldn't quite make out the words but it sounded like people. Quickly she hopped up, elated that she might find someone who could aid her and she dashed off in their direction. Of course she hadn't thought for a moment that these could be unfriendly people and she had to hold back a scream when the "people" came into view.

Lorylie had come out from behind a wall onto a horde of monsters. Some were massive in stature with horns and clubs, others were small and appeared to be made out of sludge, and some were even more horrifying than that! One even looked like a demonic teddy bear in every sense of the word.

With her hand covering her mouth to hold back a shriek, Lorylie shakily glanced around the wall at the monsters once more.

"Why do you think he would call us all the way out here?" One of the green horned monsters asked the others as they gathered around what she could now make out to be a back door into the castle. So they were speaking in a language she could understand but the voices were not right and their mouths didn't seem like they should be capable of human speech.

"I know right? I hate this place, it always gives me the willies." One of the sludge monsters commented as the dark teddy bear spoke up.

"Who knows, I just wanna get this over with and get home. This is really cutting into my nap time." Just as it finished talking more creatures began to jump into the conversation and all the words overlapped too much for her to really catch on until she heard a howl and froze on the spot.

From a open gate in the grounds wall she hadn't noticed before, a massive version of one of the hounds that had chased her pounced through, startling quite a few of the creature as they moved from the scythe like blades on it's legs.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" One of the monsters shouted and was quickly silenced by a guttural growl from the wolf. Unlike some of the more seemingly mindless hounds she had run from, this one seemed different, and it was made even more apparent when it too began to speak.

"Quiet," It snarled as it waited for everyone to get back on their feet and regroup in front of it. "Squad 3 just reported in saying they found the human but it got away. I have every pack I got looking for it in the woods. You lot are to search the castle grounds."

Lorylie's knee's buckled from under her and she hit the stone path hard. These beasts were looking for her? Why? She could feel her heart beat quicken as fear started to take over. These monsters were after her, for what she had no clue. What snapped her out of her own fears was the sound of movement from beyond the wall. Her eyes darted back to the clearing where the monsters gathered and watched as they began bickering among themselves.

Unsteadily, the teen got to her feet and started glancing around, she needed a place to hide, in a maze like this she could be easily cornered and caught. She couldn't make a dash through the gate because the wolves would be lurking around. That only left one option, the back door to the castle. She didn't have to go all the way in, she would just get inside and wait until the coast was clear before making a run for it.

This reasoning managed to calm her down some as she was able to muster up enough strength to get ready to move. She peered out, waiting for a chance where none of the monsters would catch her and dash into a shadowed corner. Thankfully they were all still arguing over who had to pair up with who in case the human turned out to be more than they could handle. With a brief hesitation Lorylie quickly rushed to the side of the castle and crushed herself into one of the sharp corners. Just in time too as the monsters all seemed to begin moving and making their way into the labyrinth like grounds. The leader hound too dashed back off into the forest most likely back on the hunt.

Quietly Lorylie waited, making sure everyone was out of sight and hearing range as she started to make her move out of her hiding spot but instantly regretted it as she overlooked one crucial detail, there might be guards. Sure enough as she came to the light, she noticed two little black knight looking creatures wielding spears at the door. Immediately she slammed her back into the corner once more breathing heavy. That was too close.

Slowly she crept her gaze around the corner to see the two creatures still standing, looking fixedly ahead. One might have been forgiven to think that these were statues but something told her that wasn't the case. She looked down at her feet to see a small rock and quietly picked it up. Peering around the corner once more Lorylie took a shot and struck one of the creatures in the head before quickly scrambling back into her corner.

Just as she had thought, the creature she had struck let out a metallic, "Oh!" and luckily the next reaction was what she had hopped for.

"What was that for?" It spoke to it's partner who responded with a confused "Huh?"

After a moment, Lorylie heard the sound of scrapping metal as it hit the ground and glanced around to see the two rolling around on the ground in a fight and she took the chance to dash into the open castle door.


	5. Running Blind

Lorylie hadn't stopped running since she hit the tile and soon the red carpet that covered part of the floor. She had wanted to make sure that no one had noticed and that she was far enough away from the entrance to keep an eye out. She took a quick turn around a large pillar and caught her breath as she glanced around, finally able to actually notice her surroundings.

What she finally saw made her jaw drop. She didn't know who's castle this was but it was insane. The details around the vaulted ceiling and the carvings at the top of the pillars alone were enough to warrant awe but the scale also was just so intimidating. She had never been in a room this high and the only thing she could compare it to would be the first time walking around in a big city.

Quickly she snapped herself out of it as she heard a couple creatures walking towards the back door. As she angled herself around the pillar so she could see them, Lorylie was still surprised when they didn't turn out to be humans. It was an impossible thing to get accustom too in such a short time and seeing an upright black talking cat was still reality bending.

Alongside the cat was an dark jester looking thing who seemed to have a permanent sneer stuck on it's face. The two seemed rather at odds with each other but continued on towards the back entrance talking to each other just loud enough for Lorylie to hear.

"Man this human business is really bothersome." Bemoaned the cat as she reached up a gloved claw to scratch under her chin.

"For once we agree. I dunno why he's even worrying about humans in the first place." The imp like jester agree'd.

The cat gave the other an annoyed look, "Well if you hadn't noticed Impmon, the digi world is starting to become infested with humans. Soon they could take over everything. That damn tamers union is getting too high and mighty, thinking they can just control everything because they're humans. Any digimon that teams up with them should be destroyed."

"Eh, you do have a point," The one apparently called Impmon responded with a shrug. The two continued on to notice the guards still fighting at the door and moved to break them up but they were now out of earshot and Lorylie had stopped paying attention.

Digimon? Digiworld? Tamers? What did that mean? That was the game she had been looking up before she had passed out. Or at least, she had thought it was game. It couldn't be that this entire place was what her class mates were talking about. Why would anyone want to come here? It was full of man eating sentient creatures that despised humans!

None of this made sense but as the young girl was trying to piece together just what exactly was going on, she failed to notice the huge back doors beginning to close. Snapped out of her confused stupor by the thundering of the doors slamming shut, Lorylie nearly blew her cover as she dashed forward before realizing the two, what apparently were digimon, were on their way back. Hastily she hurled herself backwards and hit the floor.

"Those two idiot's," The cat began, "Can't even guard a door without squabbling. Why does he even keep those two around? Rookies like that don't have what it takes."

The one who was addressed as Impmon let out a laugh, "I would have to say because they're funny. Always good for a laugh."

"Well I wouldn't be laughing if I were you, if the human get's away because of incompetence like that-"

"Pfft, don't worry so much BlackGatomon," Impmon chided, "Besides, the moon is almost gone, if the human is still around after that then they'll be stuck in this part of the digital world anyway. They can't run and hide forever."

The black cat digimon nodded in agreement as the two went out of sight. As soon as Lorylie was certain they were gone she sprung up so fast she relied more on momentum than her legs to move her over to the door. Frantically she tried to push the doors open but they wouldn't budge. They were beyond heavy and more than what her arms were capable of.

She slammed her fist on the door in a panic, stuck here? No, no way! She couldn't be stuck in this place. This dark, eerie dead place filled with horrible monsters. She recalled how she wondered about the moon was phasing itself but it hadn't actually occurred to her it was something important.

Instantly she began to regret letting her curiosity and naivety drive her forward when really she should have been looking for a way out the entire time. She felt so frustrated, so angry, so scared and confused that she just wanted to cry. Reality finally started setting in and began pushing the full brunt of it's weight on her shoulders. Lorylie could feel hot tears sting at the edges of her vision and she aggressively wiped them away. She needed to get out of this castle, maybe there was still time to get out. All she had to do was find a gate, get out, pick a direction and go, whether there was a path or not. At this point she was willing to risk the wolves if she could just get out of this world.

Brushing her hair back behind her, Lorylie spun around and started running down the halls. She wasn't caring if something would catch on to her she just needed an exit, something. She wasn't thinking very clearly but in her panic, the immediate surroundings weren't nearly as important to her.

Most of the castles interior went by in a blur as her wet eyes obstructed her peripheral vision. She was still holding back breaking down with all her might, holding onto hope that there was still time. Finally she slowed down as she came to a large entry hall. To her right were tall stairs leading into the second floor, in front of her was another hall leading to the other side of the castle and to her left was a large ornate door.

Lorylie let out a small laugh as she looked at the door, she could see it was open ever so slightly so it was possible she would be able to slip out. Letting out a relieved smile she rushed towards the door, ignoring the feeling of dread that was descending upon her more rapidly by the moment.

A little voice inside her kept repeating, 'it's too easy', 'it's too convenient', 'don't do it!' But she ignored every one of these internal alarms and kept going ever closer. She was almost there, so close. And it was then she felt something strike her in the back and she was sent flying to the side.

She landed on her stomach and the pain didn't hit until a moment later. As she moved to push her self up she let out a long cry as the intense sharp pain exploded from her back. Instantly the tears started to run down her face, the pain breaking the dam that was holding them back. Her back was now feeling hot and slick while it burned almost like it was on fire. She thought she could feel something oozing from her back and she looked down to see blood pooling on the tile.

Lorylie let out a gasp like sob as she struggled to move. Her back was throbbing and spasming as she attempted to look up to see what had hit her.

"Foolish human, did you honestly think you could get away so easily?" She heard him before she saw him which was a bit jarring seeing as the voice came from startlingly close.

Quickly turning, avoiding moving her back she saw what appeared to be a man. At least it was man shaped, digimon came in all different shapes and sizes from what Lorylie had seen so far but this was one thing she hadn't anticipated.

He was a tall humanoid creature with gangly arms and an outfit that was reminiscent of a army generals yet seemed almost most like a costume. Perhaps it was the saturated blue coloring of it that was off putting but this creatures entire look was defiantly uncanny. His face was pale and gaunt with a sickening smile planted on it.

Lorylie tried to speak but all that came out was a small cry of pain. Her fingers dug into her palms as she tried to bear it. Tried to push the agony away so that she could at least get up and face this thing with the tiniest shred of dignity.

In response to her futile attempts to get up the creature let out a cold, malicious laugh, " Trying to withstand my attack? Not many have even survived a direct hit let alone get back up from it."

Taking a shaking breath, Lorylie managed to find her voice, although it was a light and quivering one. "W-what are you?"

"What am I?" The creature mocked, raising an eyebrow to the tiny human. "I am the ruler of this realm that you're trespassing on, my name is Myotismon."

The teen tried once more and was able to push her self up to her knee's but her back screamed at her to stay still. She winced as she turned to face the devil head on, her eyes still watering. Without noticing, her hand was drifting to the strange device around her neck that she had more or less forgotten about. Perhaps it was just a panicked response, because what else could the strange thing do but the gesture did not go unnoticed.

"That digivice won't be of any use to you." Myotismon mentioned, taking a step closer and causing Lorylie to fall back to the floor. "Now hand it over."

The command startled her and her first instinct was, indeed, to hand it over but she found she couldn't bring herself to remove the orange piece of tech from her neck. If anything she gripped onto it tighter.

With a twitch of annoyance, the demon before her growled lightly, a blood red engery rope forming in his closed fist, "I said, hand it over."

Lorylie could feel the heated energy from it from where she sat and instantly recognized it as the same heat that lashed her back. The instant that connection was made the blood drained from her face and she quickly took off the digivice and tossed it to the digimon. Once was enough to make her obey and the thought of getting another lash made her entire body ache.

The monster gave a pleased smile, exposing before unseen fangs as he caught the device, the energy he was holding dissipating much to Lorylies relief. Strangely, even though she had nearly forgotten about the device and had only had it for a short time, she felt extremely naked and exposed without it.

At first she thought he might break it by the way he was looking it at. The sheer anger and disgust was enough to convince her of that but rather than crush it, which she assumed he easily could he began to tinker with it. Although odd looking, it was able to give her a moment to breath and get her thoughts back together. She needed to get out, she was still on a time limit after all. Maybe that device was all he was after and would let her go. It might have been naively hopeful, but she would have a hard enough time walking with the wound on her back without worrying about being chased.

Gingerly she moved to get up once more, wincing at the burning, oozing sensation from her back. Her legs felt like jello and her knee's were shaking as she stood, attempting to gain her balance as she warily watched the tall digimon. Even now that she was standing he was still massive, she had no doubt in her mind that he had the power to back up his stature.

"W-well..." She started, stammering her words from pain and fright. She had to swallow before continuing, trying to keep her voice steady. "If t-that's all you wanted. I-I'll just be-"

Lorylie cut off abruptly when the vampire digimon looked up from the digivice, little beeping noises emitting from tiny hidden speakers in the compact gadget. Her gaze immediately drifted downward to avoid eye contact and the monster gave a wry smile. She started backing up slowly, trying not to slip on the now slick, red tiles.

"Do not move." It commanded instantly and she froze on the spot. "I'll be done shortly." It muttered finally, observing that she wasn't going to make a break for it again, and returning it's attention to the device.

Shivering from the effort of staying still, Lorylie hugged herself tight. At least if she was moving she could focus on more than her throbbing back. Not to mention if her legs were moving she was certain there would be less chance of them giving out. She did think that perhaps it would be best to just get up the energy to move anyway instead of announcing her plan. Perhaps it would be too busy doing... whatever it was doing to notice. Or she could wait it out, it did say it was almost done. But then what?

She stopped thinking before phantoms pains from more lashes crept up her body. Glancing at the door the red head noticed it was still open that tiny bit, perhaps it was enough? She tried to slow her breathing and focus. Muscles tensing she glanced at the creature, still absorbed in it's work before returning to the door. She could do this, Lorylie thought with a deep breath, and then sprung for the door.


	6. Rescued

Lorylie got perhaps one step towards the door before it was flung back with a violent blast. The gust of energy knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling across the castle foyer. Myotismon clearly hadn't been anticipating it either because it let out a grunt as it got knocked back, holding up it's long arms as a shield.

Light from the moon outside pooled into the dark castle and in the door way stood three humans and some powerful looking monsters. One was blue and looked like it was wearing read flaming armor. The second was also blue but was more akin to a bipedal cyborg fox. The third one was a huge four legged grey beetle with gigantic mandibles. The last monster couldn't even fit in the massive door way of the castle, so it remained outside, rumbling in excitement.

All the poor girl could do was stare at the new arrivals. She was back on the ground, on her stomach looking up at the beasts and she could feel tears starting to sting her eyes. What was going on? Why was this happening? It was too much to take in all at once. She was scared, hurt and just wanted to be home. She regretted this adventure immediately, she never should have let her curiosity get the better of her and looked up that stupid game.

But before the tears could actually fall, one of the new comers stepped forward. She looked up at him and noticed that she recognized him. It was one of the boys she had seen earlier at school with the small group talking about digimon. She hadn't really taken notice of him because he hadn't been chatting as much as the other ones. He was smaller in stature than the other boys, of an average build and had shaggy black hair that fell about his face. The boy also had a pair of big sunglasses over his eyes that he threw up to rest on his head.

The shock of recognizing another person in this demented world filled Lorylie with both relief and numbness. She had no idea what was happening anymore and frankly she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Care to explain what you are doing hijacking the Tamer Unions signals?" The boy demanded, eyeing the now furious vampire digimon with disdain.

There was a pause before Myotismon straitened up, brushing himself off before looking down at the boy with equal disdain. "And here I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up."

The young boy who clearly seemed to be the leader opened his mouth to say something when one of his comrades walked up and patted him on the shoulder. "Uh, Captain." he muttered staring at Loryie and pointing.

The leader took one look at her and his face went white. She wasn't certain what she looked like to get that response but the answer must have been horrible. She looked at them with a mixture of relief and pleading. 'Just get me out of here,' her eyes screamed.

The leader blinked, shaking his head as he turned to glare with new fire in his eyes at the demon digimon. The boys hands trembled as they balled into fists and he gritted out, " Attacking a union tamer breaches the treaty, I should level this castle to the ground."

"Union tamers are only allowed on my grounds if serving a purpose, not trespassing." The digimon replied instantly. The conversation was going over Lorylies head in all honesty until the term trespassing was brought up and she pushed herself to her knee's and shot back at the digimon in a weak voice.

"I wasn't trespassing. I don't even know how I got here." She wanted to shout, but her body wouldn't have it. The words came out breathy and garbled as she continued. "I was at the computer one moment and in those god forsaken woods the next! It's not my fault!"

There was a silence, as everyone seemed to be surprised that she had mustered up the strength to speak at all. Finally the cyborg fox walked up behind the black haired boy and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Damien, I think she's new," It started, looking at the red head with a look that seemed like pity, but it was hard to tell from his canine like face. "But I don't see her digivice anywhere."

"That would be because I confiscated it." Myotismon sighed holding up the digivice by it's long cord. The orange and black gardget had stopped beeping and looked like no damage was done to it. "I do not take kindly to trespassers, especially _tamers._ Next time you send one in to spy on me, try sending one a bit more competent."

Both Lorylie and the boy named Damien opened their mouths to speak before the vampire tossed the digivice towards them. Lorylie barely caught it, clumsily trying to grasp it before it hit the ground and clutched the small gadget to herself like it was the most precious thing in the world.

Damien wasn't too happy about this turn of events. He had just gotten back from helping a pair of garurumon settle a territory dispute, a long process that ended in disaster and failure, to be greeted with a mission to the midnight zone. Every tamer hated going in because of all the wild sangloupmon that roamed in packs in the dead woods around the castle. Then there was the master of the castle himself to contend with.

Even with the bias against evil and virus type digimon nearly eradicated, this particular Myotismon seemed to carry on villainous traditions. Absurdly powerful, and a stickler for rules he was always a hassle to deal with, so when the mission came out about a data hijacking in his territory no one wanted to take the chance. So of course, they had to assign it.

It wouldn't even have been a mission except for the size of the data that came pouring in. Such occurrences are rare at best but tend to go to the tamer union head quarters at the core of the digital world. Of course it all made sense now what all that data was. She was kneeling on the ground, her clothes in tatters, blood stained and bruised, looking like a beat up puppy.

Damien hadn't been expecting this. Not for a single second, and what's more he didn't know what to do. A sentient digimon attacking a known tamer was a clear violation but if she was new... The boy shook his head angrily. This was too confusing, he wanted just a simple day in the digital world, not this political mess.

"Damien, let's just grab her and go." His partner MechGaogamon whispered eyeing the vampire digimon as he tossed the digivice to it's rightful owner.

The boy had been just about to say something but lost track of his thought as Myotismon turned to leave. Damien took a step forward before his partner put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

The demon digimon turned slightly and called over his shoulder, "Take the girl and go before I change my mind and lock you all in my dungeon." And with that he disappeared down a dark corridor.

The captain stood in silence. Yeah right, Myotismon may be powerful but he wouldn't be able to take on 2 ultimate's and an armor digimon. While Damien didn't believe the threat, he was relieved not to make a hassle of this today. They were going to get away without a fight, he'd take it.

"Nathan, James." He called turning to his two comrades, "Help her up will you? She looks like she's in bad shape. Take her to the med center and make sure she get's treated."

"What are you going to do?" His good friend James asked from beside him. He was a tall but surprisingly shy boy with light blonde hair, his partner, Flamedramon was very similar.

"I need to report this back to the union. A new tamer getting dropped in the midnight zone, hijacked data, this is above my head but I have to report it." Damien muttered as sigh, rubbing the back of his head before donning his glasses and heading out the door with his partner. He would need to report this quickly before the others reached the base.

Damien produced a small disk from his shorts pocket and held it up, pressing a couple of buttons on it. A Home Disk was meant to send tamers to their base of operations but it was only usable by one person. Without the new girl in the database she wouldn't be able to use it anyway, so they would have to fly her back the long way.

The captain dropped the disk onto the ground and a white light shot from it and high into the sky before he nodded at his partner and stepped through it back to headquarters.


End file.
